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Topic: Kegerator (Read 3530 times)

Not a very good pic, but I made this one myself. Frame is SS, with expanded metal tray, painted black. The catch is just a fifty cent aluminum bread pan. when it get nasty, I toss it out, and put a new one in.

I'm in Ohio right now, but when I get home to Idaho, I'll check those dimensions for you, if no one else has posted by then.

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A man works hard all week, so he doesn't have to wear pants all weekend.

Hate to argue with you, but if you wiggle it all just right, you can get a 5# tank inthere with the cornies. I'm not saying it's easy, but I have done. Was not happy about having to put the puzzle all back together each time, so I moved it outside, but it can be done. It's tighter than a frogs butt, though. I'll tell ya that.

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A man works hard all week, so he doesn't have to wear pants all weekend.

Funny. At 45º it doesn't run that often this time of year. It's on the cold end of the house, my office is right next to it and I can hear it when it runs..... however....in summer the "mudroom" as the pantry is known will get toastier...

Irony is lost.....The cost to run includes the beer to be consumed....hence the $3,000.

Ah...... fatigue is an issue sometimes. Actually.... since October, so 6 months 100 gallons, at a cost of about $3/G, so $300, x2= $600 a year..... compared to close to 10K for commercial beer.... I'll take it.

Ah...... fatigue is an issue sometimes. Actually.... since October, so 6 months 100 gallons, at a cost of about $3/G, so $300, x2= $600 a year..... compared to close to 10K for commercial beer.... I'll take it.

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My records have me about $4.50/galllon for the last several years (ranging between $3.80 and $6.50 per gallon per batch)....so $3/gallon is pretty good. I am all over the place, neither too light, nor too heavy....no IPA's of any kind, no imperials, mostly all grain 5-6% ABV with the occasional 8% christmas beer.

My records have me about $4.50/galllon for the last several years (ranging between $3.80 and $6.50 per gallon per batch)....so $3/gallon is pretty good. I am all over the place, neither too light, nor too heavy....no IPA's of any kind, no imperials, mostly all grain 5-6% ABV with the occasional 8% christmas beer.

I'm paying $.70 / pound for two row * 20-22 for the average beer = $14-=$16, two or three dollars worth of specialty grain = $17-$19I reuse yeast but have to buy say every fourth batch so $2 = $19-$21. Say an average of 5 ounces of hops at $1.25 or so = $6 so now we're at $25 to $27...... some salts, a whirlfloc tablet, some propane water and electricity..... call it an even $30/10=$3

Now there's 128 ounces in a gallon so we're talking $.30 for a 12 ounce beer...... even if it was $.50 after the fermenteezers, keggerator and dishwasher do their thing.....A case of SNPA is $38/24=$1.58 So I'm well ahead of the game. And we're not even talking about the better Belgians. There the savings are enormous.

Rock on Oscar! Rock ON! The best I am doing is about 95 cents a pound on base malt (in my case, 2 row, Western)...I would love to hear where you are getting for less..I was 2 inches shy of starting my own brewery, and then I found a paying job...in that time, I checked out pricing for grains wholesale....they run about 45 cents a pound for 2 row....of course, if you buy tons, it is less, but 45 cents for a pallet and 43 cents for in excess of 10,000 lbs....and that is if I pick it up myself.....which, living in Denver, (close to coors and a gazillion micros.....).

I calculated my costs at about $0.35-$0.50 a 12 ouncer....my 2010 batch average was 0.46 cents a 12 ounce bottle.

Even at that, I didn't include labor costs (hey, its a hobby, ain't it?) and figured that below 50 cents a bottle is pretty good if you are going to compare with over the bar prices.....my business model was 100% over the bar sales (with some discount for growler sales). My ultimate assessment was that small local brewery with only over the bar sales (and no restaurant) is the way to go. Launching into production brewery is suicide.

I scored pretty decent in Idaho. I can buy grain from the brewery there for 0.80 a #. Beats my 1.25 at the old LHBS. Can also gets hops there at a pretty good price. Yeast is another story. Said she will not sell me any of it. And, of course, any other odds and ends I'll have to order online, but for the price of grain, I can't complain.

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A man works hard all week, so he doesn't have to wear pants all weekend.